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Category: Russian Far East

June 30, 2016

How happy are Kim Jong-un’s slaves? It depends on which slave you ask.

There may be no story on earth where the answer to a question is so dependent on who you ask as North Korea. Take the case of this NK News story from February, by an anonymous correspondent who went to Vladivostok, wandered into a local North Korean cafe, and found some North Korean construction workers who were — surprisingly enough! — willing to speak “freely” to a foreign journalist. Ready for your first clue? He grins through a mouthful of gold teeth which, combined...

Categories Human Trafficking/Russia & Korea/Russian Far East
May 14, 2015

N. Korea’s expatriate labor needs ethical and financial limits

N. Korea increasingly relies on expat labor for hard currency A series of new reports suggests that the export of labor has become a major source of income for Pyongyang. The Financial Times cites an NGO estimate that the regime earns $1.5 to $2.3 billion a year from contract labor, in line with educated estimates of its annual revenue from missile sales ($1.5 billion) or arms deals with Iran ($1.5 billion to $2 billion). (Update: Marcus Noland questions that estimate,...

Categories Engagement/Human Rights/Kaesong/Russian Far East/Sanctions
March 21, 2010

Old KGB Habits Die Hard: Russians Arrest North Korean Logger

In the war between Kim Jong Il’s regime and the people of North Korea, Russia has taken the regime’s side: The North Korean’s note, scrawled in pen, was simple: “I want to go to South Korea. Why? To find freedom. Freedom of religion, freedom of life.” The ex-logger, on the run from North Korean authorities, handed the note over to a South Korean missionary in the Russian city of Vladivostok last week in hopes it would lead to political asylum....

Categories Russia & Korea/Russian Far East
February 18, 2010

6.7 Earthquake Hits Tri-Border Area Near Rajin, N. Korea

No word on damage or injuries in the area yet, but 6.7 is a pretty big quake. In 1994, an earthquake of equal magnitude centered at Northridge, California, killed 72 people and injured 9,000 more. Though area residents said they did not feel the quake, office towers in Beijing — about 770 miles (1,240 kilometers) away from the epicenter — swayed slightly for about a minute. The quake occurred 335 miles (540 kilometers) below the earth’s surface. With earthquakes centered...

Categories Inside NK/Russian Far East
February 2, 2010

Is This Kim Jong Il’s Private Train?

A reader recently directed my attention to these images at RailPictures.net, taken by Danish tourist Asger Christiansen while visiting Vladivostok in 2002. Christiansen believes they show Kim Jong Il’s unmarked private train taking him to a meeting with Vladimir Putin. I contacted Mr. Christian, who graciously allowed me to post the images here. Click for full size. Apparently, the Russians insisted on using their own locomotives and operators inside Russia. Interesting, too, that Russian and North Korean trains share the...

Categories Kim Jong Il/Russia & Korea/Russian Far East
March 6, 2008

Just Seven Months to Go: Kim Jong Il Stalls, We Let Him

All signs point to North Korea viewing last week’s New York Phil concert as a substituting for denuclearization, rather than complimenting it. We are no closer to a North Korea presenting its declaration. To the extent North Korea believes that the Clapton Gambit has shifted our public conversation to superficial gestures, or that stalling will earn more concessions, we’re further from it. Evans Revere’s “16-inch broadside of soft power” impressed Kim Jong Il approximately as much as three inches of...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Russian Far East
February 23, 2008

What’s the Russian Word for “Pueblo?”

A Russian cargo ship has been detained and boarded by armed coastguard agents in North Korean waters, Russian maritime officials say. The Lida Demesh, carrying a consignment of cars from Japan, was heading for the Russian port of Vladivostok when it was stopped by patrol near Cape Musudan. [BBC] Musudan-ri is absolutely the wrong section of North Korea’s coastline to approach. The area is infamous for such attractions as a missile test site, a nuclear test site, and a large...

Categories NK Military/Russia & Korea/Russian Far East